Minnesota’s Chris Baird uses patterned slices and hand-formed beads in patriotic blue and gold polymer to spell out “peace”.
While we figure out what real support for Ukraine will look like, many feel compelled to show their sentiments in the art at their fingertips.
Miami’s Venus De Chela usually takes her inspiration from paintings – Monet’s waterlilies or Picasso’s women. Her latest collection, a mosaic of the Cuban flag, is closer to this Cuban-born artist’s heart.
“VIVA CUBA LIBRE Y VIVA,” she says as she raises money for her homeland. Her polymer earrings send a strong message.
Kansas’ Tiffany (SmithAvenueClay) waves the flag in her latest earrings on Instagram. Her designs are parade-worthy.
The fourth of July was made for extruder lovers and cane-making fans!
So squeeze out some stars and layer up some stripes! It’s just around the corner!
You might think that Shulamit Raanan creates her most exuberant stars and stripes in a small town in a midwestern American flag-waving state. You’d be wrong. “The magic takes place in a little studio, on the second floor of a house standing at the top of a hill overlooking the Yzrael Valley in the north of Israel,” she admits. She’s a prolific maker of buttons, beads, and jewelry as you’ll see on her FB page.
If you need a soothing, meditative polymer technique, try bicones like Shulamit’s. Carissa Nichols shows you how to rock and roll bicone beads from scrap in this video. It’s like learning to ride a bike (without the skinned knees). Once you get your balance you’ll be hooked.
Fill out your ballot, check it twice. You’re all set to vote!
Illinois’ Ann Duncan-Hlavach brings red, white, and blue to her polymer roses. She swirls thin cane slices around each other and hides a pearl in their centers.
So here’s hoping that we swirl around each other and find the pearl we want in the middle.
You’ve voted already, right? That’s the best way to keep your garden growing!
North Carolina’s Ginnie Parrish (BlueFrogClay) gets her patriotism on with a pinwheel version of stars and stripes earrings along with simple mismatched stars. Now doesn’t that make you want to go out and vote?
I was so inspired that I zipped into my studio to see what I could come up with. But that’s for later in the week. Send PCD photos of what you’ll be wearing to the polls. Here’s Ginny on Etsy.
It’s Memorial Day in the US. These red, white, and blue polymer flipflop earrings from Texas’ Paula Kennedy are the perfect accessory for the local parade.
Paula usually creates much more intense and complex projects (like this silver and polymer micromosaic feather necklace) but on a day like today, it’s hard to resist cute.
You decide how serious or silly, how simple or complex you want your work to be.
Israel’s Shulamit Raanan adds the grand finale to our polymer fireworks display. A mid-week holiday makes it hard to know when to stop.
She swirls red and white beads into bicone beads then adds a blue star accent. Simple and effective. Read Shulamit’s story in her Etsy profile, Facebook, and Instagram.
Artists Amy Hucks, Doreen Gay Kassel, and Donna Greenberg reflect on the holiday.
Not so much red, white and blue this year but a more somber yet whimsical look sculpted in polymer.
Doreen considers the immigrants in her family. Donna looks at resistance. Amy is all about heart.
How would you translate this July 4?
Each year our red, white and blue canes are provided by another country! Aren’t you proud of that?
Thanks to Israel and Shuli Raanan for these stars and stripes canes. Her Etsy site is full of flags and tidy swirl beads topped with stars in unusual ways.
If you’ve ever made a bicone bead that swirls as hers do, you’ll appreciate her precision. It still looks like magic when Shuli does it so well. You can find her work on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
Visiting grandchildren will be distracting me for the next few days so PCD posts will be intermittent or missing altogether this week. Have a great holiday!
